Well this is ancient and valuable equipment waiting to explode when we power things on.
Iota unclips the vox from his belt and selects the channel his tech retinue uses: "The first step will be to get the doors powered. Map out where all the cables in this installation go, with a priority on those that connect to door mechanisms. Mark those out for me specifically. Once you're done I sanction the junior tech priests to sanctify the door mechanisms. Use the catechism of slow awakening it will take time to get the drives properly inspected and their spirits appeases and roused. Asses whether additional personel will make the task more efficient and route requests through me."
He himself takes on the task of first inspecting the drives, then performing the long overdue maintenance rituals. Eventually when he is satisfied that he knows the condition of the drives exactly(and it is satisfactory of course) he will make sure that he can release the power to the station one cable at a time. So they can inspect one section before moving on to the next.
<<Very well. If you orbit directly opposite us your fighters should detect the other vessel as it avoids you. Capture the vessel if you can. We have two relic plasma reactors down here and if like to keep this place off the charts for our own use. >>
Archibald hopes this additional operation doesn't take long. There is much to do and only a few days in which to do it if they are to arrive at their original destination as scheduled.
For some of you, it's been a gruelling couple of days.
There has been a flurry of activity for some, and for some it has been more in line of "hurry up and wait", which can be quite exhausting in it's own right of course.
Eventually, things must come to ahead, and they do indeed.
The mysterious contact is lost beyond recovery, leaving the continuing of the search in vain.
At the same time, the basic mapping of the planet is done, revealing little in the way of surprises.
The mapping of the facility has also been completed, as far as it can go without opening any doors.
And, finally, with a long, loud rumbling of protest, like a sleeping giant slowly waking up from a pleasant dream, the plasma drives comes back online.
Lights begin to somewhat spottily illuminate areas of the facility.
In some areas, the illumination is poor, as most of the light globes are simply too old to work, in other areas the light flickers, creating an eerie atmosphere, and in a few, they light up perfectly.
+++ Flashback: Ghost Hunting IN SPACE +++
Under Heinrich's command, the Rising Sun, surrounded by a fighter screen and with it's full compliment of bombers ready on the magrails, burns hard out of the stable orbit and accelerates hard (much to the enjoyment of helmsman Yeager) while pumping megajoules of energy through its Augur array in search of the contact...
... to no success. As they round the small planetoid, there is no ship in sight. A quick call-in to the fighters holding position over the Rogue Trader's position confirms that the suspected contacts did not turn the planet either.
Heinrich then orders the fighter screen to disperse and perform a wide range search pattern before sitting down with a mixture of surprise and worry written on his face.
After a few more hours of scanning and patrolling, he calls for a cancel-and-return to orbit, giving Archibald a status report boiling down to:
"Either there never was a real contact to begin with or we had an incredibly fast and-or stealthy Xeno visitor, who knew we noticed and were coming for him and turned tail. I honestly can't tell, Sir."
On the return trip (at a much more cruiser-adequate speed) the ship completes the augury of the surface before taking on position above the facility again.
+++ Now +++
Heinrich has returned planetside with his fighter, escorting doen some shuttles with spare lumen globes and cabling for the Magos as well as fresh food from the officer's canteen and is sitting with the Rogue Trader, marvelling about the found.
"Two plasma drives.
Can you believe it. Just lying down here for thousands of years. One really has to wonder how much stuff was hidden somewhere in the galaxy only to be promptly forgotten about in the ten millennia since the Rise of HIM on earth..."
After a bit of silence, he adds:
"But anyway, what will we do with it?
I thought we had a meeting to attend to...
Shall we leave a basic crew for this station behind to start building is back up?
Or do we intend to rip the engines out and sell them? I'd guess that Adeptus Mechanicus faction eager for this sector would love to get their mechandendrites on such old tech..."
Indeed they would. But the only Mechanicus person I trust right now is Iota. Until we know what exactly we have here we can't right value it. I intend to keep it a secret for now. It's value as a hidden base alone is significant.
Archibald sets down the glass of wine he was holding to bring up a new report on his data slate.
We are running out of time. We need to crack those sealed doors before we go. So, call up five squads. Three standard line infantry and two heavy teams. We're going to go each to door see what's what.
Then we can determine want kind of presence to leave behind.
"Of course.", and he gets up, salutes and steps out of the Rogue Trader's tend to relay orders and get into combat gear himself.
Once you have collected your troops and made proper preparations, you march back to the first door you found.
Once the proper rites are used and the proper rune activated, the door begins to slowly slide open.
There is a large rumbling, a lot of screeching protests, not to mention a lot of dust and debris falling from on high.
There is also a puff of truly rank stench coming from inside the sealed room.
The doors do not open fully, finally grinding to a halt about two thirds open.
It seems that without more care, they simply cannot operate as well as should be.
Once you peek inside, you are met with a sight that's probably no completely surprising.
It's a chapel, one that was probably quite nice at one point in time.
But millennia of decay, rot and corruption has set in.
Everything is covered in grim, dust and patina.
From the lights of your torches, you can see hints of glittering gold underneath all the grim, especially on the massive statue of the holy emperor that dominates the center of the room
The stench can also be explained, because you can see the remains of a lot of people here.
There aren't a lot of remains, but there wouldn't be after all this time...
Archibald nearly gags, but presses into the room first. He takes just a few steps in, enough to count as having entered first, then he calls forward the sweep.
Oof. Sweep and clear, Sargent's. Then we're moving on.
Heinrich, bring down some purification and consecration specialists supervised closely by Remembrancers. Nothing in here is to be changed, removed, altered, purged or otherwise. Just cleaned up and gently disinfected.
We move on after the sweep is complete.
The second room revealed is more of a disappointment.
The door opens with a lot more ease, only to reveal...well, half a room.
the other half is lost behind a cave in, nothing but stones and dirt filling up that area.
It's almost impossible to tell what the room was used for at some point before the cave in.
Again, there are remains of the dead, but these do not smell nearly as bad, it seems the dryness of the area has preserved the corpses and mummified them.
Archibald looks at the cave-in as if it has given him a personal offence.
We'll get to this later. We need to diagnose these bodies, but until then, to door 3!
The third room seems to have been converted to an impromptu store room, though it's clear it wasn't that originally.
There are, once again, corpses, and a large number of crates, many of them open, with their contents spilled out.
Solonius frowns, then walks over to one of the corpses.
Kneeling down he pushes the corpse aside and pulls something out.
"Hmmph, this is a surprise."
In his hands is a large rifle, while dirty and worn, it still looks fairly impressive.
"This is a Perenius pattern boltgun, a very good weapon for those looking for accuracy AND punch.
It's on the verge of being considered Heretek by some members of the adeptus mechanicus, but still pretty popular...."
Slowly racking the slide, Solonius frowns before holding the rifle out for the Captain to inspect.
"...and it's a pattern that has only existed for less than five hundred years..."
Archibald dutifully inspects it and frowns. We aren't the first ones here, and even the stopping power of a bolt gun didn't save the others.
He ponders for a moment. We need more time. Always more time.
Ok, salvage the weapons and anything else we could use. Let's go see what the last door holds.
The last door isn't as elaborate as the chapel one, but it seems to deliberately have been made to look as imposing as possible.
Larger than any of the other, and if cleaned, probably a mixture of black with silver plating.
Several skulls adorn the door, angled to look like they are looking down on and observing you.
As the door opens, it's clear it leads into a very large chamber.
The area is curiously formed. Straight ahead is a lowered octagonal area, there seems to be several cogitators and screens in that area.
As you walk into the area to see more clearly, you realise that behind you, there is an elevated area above the door, and on that area is a large throne, looking down over the whole room.
Along the walls there are many screens, cogitators and equipment.
It is a very familiar setup.
What are the chances a ship crashed here millennia ago and yet survived mostly? Archibald wonders aloud.
"Is this... A bridge?
Did they land a capital ship and made it into a base of operations?
I've read that this is how many of the older colonies were started..."
Solonius shrugs at what might be a rhetorical question.
"The imperium builds things to last.
It's not really any more unlikely than spacehulks that has existed for much longer than this."
He then glances at Iota, clearly wondering if he is going to be able to answer the question better?
As Solonius unpacks the boltgun, Heinrich let's out a low whistle.
"I know that pattern well.", and he lifts his gun. Which could have been inside the crate moments before. Only the somewhat modified stock and a prayer seal attached to the longer-than-usual barrel marks it different.
"Nice and trusty indeed."
He looks around.
"Nothing we've seen yet would require anywhere near that much power as two full, cruiser-class plasma drives provide...
And even if they landed their ship... That would explain at most one core...."
Iota takes a look around the bridge and shakes his head.
"It is too early to give a definite answer. But my preliminarry assessment is: no they did not land a capital ship here. Otherwise the corridors would not be made out of stone and retain more of a ship shape. Besides we are under ground. Ships don't 'land' under ground. Not to mention that style of settlement is mostly pre-imperial. Some say it is even predates the age of strife.
Anyway. We have a bridge and we have two drive units. Extrapoliting from the accessable data would suggest they have in fact turned this stellar body into a space craft."
just two cruise your class drives doesn't feel like enough though. This body is about 20 kilometers across!
So many mysteries! I would love to park us here and figure all of them out right now, but we have a meeting to get to.
I would also love to leave a detachment here, but with what we saw in the chapel and the storage room I'm not sure it's wise. Let's recall everybody. We can leave some of the prefab structures here, but I want all our people back on the Rising Sun. Let's recover the supplies we found like the bolt guns so we have something to show for the time and come back with more specialized resources to uncover this place's mysteries.
While you haven't given full power back to the facilities, some emergency lamps and such have come back on, and you can, in the dim lights, notice a panel further into the room that is slowly blinking red.
You may have found the source of the mysterious signal.
"Which is why I said it is too early to give a definite answer. But let's not be hasty here. We still have plenty of time to explore and still catch the meeting with time to spare."
The blinking panel catches Iotas eye but so does the rest of the room. He will examine all the panels he comes across, not just the blinking one in the back.
Via a private vox channel, he coms Archibald.
"We should perform full bio augury for all returning crew. Corpses have a tendency to harbor all kinds of long-enduring nasties..."
He then points at the blinking console and wanders over to check it out.
"We should disable that though, right?"
Maybe it's a sudden power surge, maybe it's a proximity alarm, maybe it's just providence, but suddenly the console that is blinking, lights up completely and above it, suddenly a translucent image of a woman appears.
She is quite imposing, wearing what is clearly a navy uniform, although of a cut you've never seen before.
"This is captain *Zzzzzrk* of the Imperial navy's 5th Val*Zzzzrk* flotilla.
I put down these, which might be my final thoughts.
It is currently *Zzzzzrk* date, and it is likely we go to our doom.
While truly a spectacular sight, I hope anyone who sees this message will never experience the complete shattering of a whole planet.
Even as we speak, truly massive debris are hurtling towards us at a speed we cannot hope to avoid.
May the Emperor have mercy on our souls...*zzzzrk*"
"Interesting. So it was involuntarilly after all. Still - how do you go from getting bombarded by space debry to being an underground part of it? Also: how can an entire planet be shattered? Exterminatus level bombardment leaves the world a barren rock, not exploding into space.
Still, there were some rumors that during or after the heresy traitor homeworlds got that treatment. I can't imagine the level of firepower needed thought. I could calculate it of course but still..."
The shattering of a planet? Confound it! Nothing happens here without raising more questions!
Archibald takes a steading breath. But I am being hasty, Iota, you're right. We have time. Let's take a day and really comb over what we have here and really secure the place. I do not like that we found only human remains and not a single sign of what or who attacked and slaughtered an expedition 500 years ago. Call me paraniod, but that just reeks of trouble.
Archibald confirms Heinrich's suggestion over the private line. Certainly. Yet we cannot be late to our meeting. Our future in this sector depends on it.
Heinrich's eyes narrow at the hologram in deep thought.
"I know it's a far call but ... That uniforms looks like the ones of the Valhallans."
He snaps out and into the discussion of the others and add in:
"... maybe this IS part of the bombarded planet? A fragment if you will..."
But we didn't notice any asteroid field or other sign of a shattered world. Even after 8000 years we should have seen significant debris in orbit.
You spend the remainder of the day doing various tasks.
You...end up with more questions.
Especially from Heinrich's examination of the corpses.
No corpse is estimated to be less than several millennium old, certainly none are "fresh" enough to have been brought here with the weapons you found.
And those weapons CANNOT be older than 500 years.
The weapons collected, about fifteen of them could be repaired and repurposed.
Solonius immediately jumps on the idea of using those weapons by handing the out to the best shooters of his men, creating three smaller elite units.
Either that, or spreading them out, letting a larger unit have a few snipers.
THAT is up to the lord captain to decide.
The remaining ones could be stripped down for parts and sold as cargo.
If you could find a proper buyer, you should be able to make a decent profit.
Iota finds that the cogitators still contains a lot of data, even though most of it is corrupted or unusable.
However, if downloaded, categorised and properly purged, it could be used as a reference library on certain topics.
It also contains star maps, while unlikely to be up to date, it could probably give you ideas of where to go and what to do.
The plasma drives are bleeding power, several areas seems to be missing, most likely smashed in the crash.
One area looks interesting though, because there is clearly a component there, but it seems to be disconnected from the drive, yet powered...
Going to the area in question reveals what may very well be the biggest prize of the investigation.
It's a fully functioning, still usable, Shard cannon.
A shard cannon is something of a grey area, it's officially considered xenotech, but nobody knows what xeno is supposed to be responsible.
Some people argue that it should be reclassified as archeotech.
Either way, here is one, and given enough time, you could remove it from the hull, and possibly install it on your own ship.
As Archibald prepares for his meeting with the local planetary authorities, he responds to your reports with messages and orders.
Firstly, the bolters are to be distributed to elite squads as Cmdr. Merkham suggested. He will attempt to find a buyer for the other parts through some navy parts supply contacts he knows.
- 2 Dos
Secondly, he orders the complete copy and recovery of the site's data, as if that was ever in question. Any insights into this area would be useful.
Third, is a general inquiry into what this "Shard Cannon" is exactly and what it does.
For the second day, Archibald does much the same as the first. He's studying the planet that was his original purpose in coming to this system.
On the third day he decides on the contingent to be left in a morning meeting of the senior officers.
Iota, Heinrich, I need you two with me. Acquiring the allegiance of this planet is critical to our future success and I need my best people to assure that future.
Therefore, I would like each of you to choose highly trusted subordinate teams to carry out a mission here. They are to secure, monitor, analyze, and generally possess this little nugget of rock here as a kind of operational outpost. Possession is, after all, what we are here to do and I'm told it counts for about nine tenths of the law.
Cmdr. Markham, please select at least three squads, more at your discression. I want someone awake and alert 24 hours in case of raid. Just because I'm the first to claim it doesn't mean some pirate scum isn't already aware of this place.
Cmdr. von Bastillion, leave a few fighters here for void support.
I'd prefer to keep this little discovery quiet as well, at least until we have secured the planet under our banner. Therefore, if we can use the people that have already been down there, that'd reduce the risk of too many rumors while we're in port.
Questions, comments? He looks to each member of his staff, inviting input and clarification.
As things are getting stowed and they get underway, he supervises his personal preparations. He makes sure his dress uniform is precisely pressed and that each of the shining buttons is polished. His obsidian black boots are practically mirrors and his golden, braded epaulets shine.
He then inspects his personal shuttle, an Aquila class lander with nose mounted multi-laser in place of the standard heavy bolter. It is painted blue and gold and coated in a clear ceramic to defend against the fires of atmospheric entry spoiling the perfect paintwork. He didn't yet have a meeting location, but he would be ready if they requested his presence planetside.
He then then checks in on the preparations of his honor guard. Their uniforms are black base with blue trims and gold embellishments. The house standard stands out starkly on each shoulder. The short barreled, folding stock lasguns of the ship's security forces are on full, polished display here. Their preferred pattern's lighter bulk and short range accuracy being favored in the cramped spaces of a starship.
Iota is extatic about finding that canon - but he will not permit the use of straight out Xenotech. He will study the thing very closely to determine whether HE will recognize it as Xenotech, in need of reverse engineering before being allowed to be deployed, or as Archeotech that is fine to be used even while barely understood. Maybe there is something about the cannon in the data cores that have already been sifted through?
Coming together for the meeting however brings him back to looking at the bigger picture.
"By now most of my staff has been down. I do not anticipate problems from this however. Secrecy about where the Omnissiahs bounties have been found is absolutly integral to all tech personel. And those that are not willing or not able to comply are sentenced to mind scrubbing under paragraph 48 section 3 of the ships rules. Usually happens within 5 months of the initial recruitment or not at all.
That said statistics indicate that tech team 14 is progressing the fastest with any given task down here so they will receive the honor. The disappointment of leaving here will spur the rest of the tech teams to greater achievments when we return."
Iota himself is dressed as he always is when going planetside - red Adeptus Mechanicus robes, his trusty power axe visibly on his back and boltgun on his hip. Variable is with him, his trusty servo skull, along with a bulky power servitor and two tech adepts that have previously distinguished themselves.
All good things must come to an end, and it's not like you have all the time in the world either way.
This turned out to be a potentially profitable, interesting and confusing little side trek, something that could lead to great things down the road perhaps, but for now, you decide it is time to move on to greater things.
Eventually, what you can salvage is salvaged, the planetoid is officially claimed, and you leave a skeleton crew behind to care for what is potentially your first conquest in your growing empire.
You don't exactly have a set day/night cycle aboard a ship like this, but if you had, your arrival at your ultimate destination, the planet Karthan 5, happens in the same one as the one you left your hitherto unnamed planet.
As you scan the planet, you get your first view of the city you are to meet the representative of the local government in, "The Emperors rest".
It is, at least from afar, a pretty impressive sight.
Clearly, this is a planet that has been untouched by hardship in any real sense of the world.
Every indication seems to be that it is a clean, beautiful and peaceful place.
And then, not long after you enter orbit, you are hailed from the planet.
"Unknown vessel, this is Emperor's rest ground control, we are currently tracking you, please acknowledge and identify yourself."
Archibald's brow furrows sightly at the hail. He motions to the head of his diplomatic corps, an ageing gentleman by the name of Gregor Armani VII, who announces in a clear, confident tone, This is the Rising Sun, flagship of Rogue Trader Lord Captain Archibald Benedict Thunderblossom of House Thunderblossom. Sending ident verification codes.
A nearby vox adept punches a few buttons and the codes are away.
There are a few seconds of static before the voice comes back, now markedly more polite.
"Rising sun, you're earlier than scheduled. Apologies for the confusion, but there is a reason for the extra precautions.
However, I am sure the lord mayor will fill you in on that when you meet in person.
Are you planing on visiting ahead of the appointed meeting, or will you be remaining in orbit until it's time?
Also, the lord mayor will want to know if you require an official welcome with the pomp and ceremony your status affords you, or would you prefer to remain more anonymous for now?"
Gregor turns slightly to look at Archibald. He has relaxed and smiles slightly at the thought of just dropping in on the mayor, but no. That would be impolite at best.
Let them know we're open for business, but to keep the schedule, Gregor. No need to ruffle more feathers than we already have.
Gregor nods.
The Lord Captain gratefully declines the offer of an adjusted schedule. He shall arrive personally on time and the proper procedures and ceremonies can be observed as planned.
Prior to my Lord's glorious arrival, however, he has generously authorized commercial activity prior to his official arrival date. You may inform your local Guild-masters, Trade Consortiums, and other commercial interests of our arrival. The Lord Captain himself will conduct business after his reception with the Lord Mayor, of course.
The request to do a fly-over is met with a little resistance at first, but eventually granted. It seems to be a security concern, possibly trying into that secret that was promised to be revealed during the meeting in person.
When breaching the clouds and starting to look around, ones senses are almost assaulted by vibrant colours.
The canopy of leaves is so deeply emerald green that it looks more like an artists rendition of a forest instead of the real thing.
Here and there are clumps of red, it seems like scattered all over the massive forest that takes up most of the immediate area are red leaved trees that grows together.
Whither that is a normal phenomenon or man made is impossible to discern at this point.
Further to the west, one can see the ocean, and just like the trees, the vibrant blue colour is truly spectacular.
For those not afraid of swimming, it's an open invitation indeed.
To the east of the city, there are large, golden fields of crops.
Meanwhile, when one lands, the first thing noticeable once one steps out of the shuttle is just how sweet the air is.
Cleaner than anything one is likely to have ever experienced before, with just a small hint of some sweet aroma gently caressing your olfactory senses.
When descending, one can see that the city seems to be almost completely round, with its centre dominated by a large palace, and stretching out, divided so far into three sections, aside from the central palace.
Heinrich will send a communique planetside, addressed to the "imperial palace guard", requesting a preliminary meeting to discuss "matters of security, vip housing and local safety precautions and regulations".
Assuming they agree, Solonius and he will head down accompanied by a squad of guards who just got issued a bunch of very nice boltguns. Heinrich, whose weapon of choice was just the very same pattern, has started preliminary training of the troops but they were certainly not ready to be called "elite" troops by any stretch of imagination. But Solonius and he agreed that just the fact that the deployed troops were actually armed with bolters instead of the far more common Lasgun would give the locals some pause and an inkling that the Lord Thunderblossom was not to be taken lightly.
Archibald whistles as he flips though the pict captures sent along with Heinrich's first preliminary report. He hasn't seen that much green since inspecting an agri transport when he was a teenager. The distances were vast, for a planet. For a Voidborn like himself thinking in mere kilometers was downright cute. His own ship was over 5km long, after all, but when seen like this. Oh the Space! In the vastness of the void there was mostly nothing. In the mere kilometers of this world there was Everything! It only made him want to touch down more and experience these things for himself!
Heinrichs game plan:
He will, during the discussion with the locals, ask for any local security issues.
Known cult activity, uprisings, past or present Xeno incursions, unrest, etc
Under the guise of "just going through my check list".
While doing so, he will watch his peers reaction very closely.
Heinrich is able to talk to quite a few people during his time dirtside.
The most interesting comes from an old Stevedore he meets in a bar for a glass of the local brew known as Naglia and is apparently made from fish oil.
Apparently, when the old overlord of the sector got himself *BLAMMED* some of the old deals he had made were made null and void as they had been quite favourable for the sector, as despite everything else, he had been a skilled and capable ruler.
One of them, were with a large mercenary company that had been providing security with their fleet of ships.
Now, there is a fear that the local xeno's might get a bit uppity and that is one of the reasons they are kind of scrambling a bit.
Iota is quite impressed. A paradise world usually implies a low-ish level of tech as to not destroy the natural beauty but the presence of nearspace survilance speaks against that. So the preliminary conclusion would be a sufficient technology to prop up a space faring civilization AND keep the nature alive.
Archibald, while musing over the report, makes a note to find out exactly what these expired deals were and who that mercenary company is.
Assuming the mercenary company is relatively easy to find, Archibald will send an emissary to make first contact with them. His proposal is to resume the previous contract under the same terms as the last, as long as those terms seem adequate and agreeable.
Alternatively, he also has the emissary float the possibility of bringing the company under the flag of the Rogue Trader himself. This would free the company from the limits of one system, but would, of course, necessitate a new contract entirely.
The appointed day and hour finally arrives.
The lord mayor seems to have put up quite a show for you. Of course, since he is welcoming three Rogue Traders as well as a contingency from the Ecclisiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus, it make sense that he'd go all out.
All the way from the landing docks to the palace, your road is flanked by two rows of guardsmen standing at attention.
And as you walk, petals of some kind are strewn on your path.
Of course, you are also flanked by your own personal guards, so you do feel a very real sense of protection and security.
Or most of you do, it seems Solonius keeps staring all around himself, muttering about sniping positions and such.
You're all separate from each other, as in each representative walking in their own cluster.
You do however see glimpses of each other here and there.
The representative from the House Stalhfucher doesn't disappoint, his face a mask of superior sneering and condensation.
The Odenateus dynasty is a woman of regal bearing, who seems to be brooding and thinking, barely paying attention to her surroundings.
The Ecclesiarchy has sent a trio of older men, each a bushy bearded old grandfatherly type, with smiles that doesn't quite reach their eyes.
They are of course flanked by a contingency of sisters of battle.
The Admechs have sent what seems to be a full Magos, with an honorarium of Skittari rangers to boot.
The day arrives. The sky is clear and blue as a cluster of aircraft enter the upper atmosphere and weave their way through deceleration maneuvers. The first discernable craft are the enormous Fury starfighters. An entire squad of escorts barely dips below supersonic as they pass low overhead. The rippling cracks of multiple sonic booms heralds the arrival of two Arvus lighters and a singular Aquila pattern lander.
The Arvus lighters land gently and disgorge their cargo: mostly Solonius and the honor guard in black and gold. Heinrich is also there and Iota with his small cohort of personal Mechanicus attendants Archiblad insisted he bring.
The Aquila lands last. It's a brilliant red and gold, completely untarnished by the fires of atmospheric entry. As the center mass of the lander drops down the Lord Captain is revealed. His navy-inspired uniform is free of even the suggestion of a wrinkle. Every button and clasp gleams and even the visible metal of his implant is clean and bright. Commanding Purpose radiates from him as he takes his place in the procession. First impressions are important so he takes time to not be too overbearing with his fellow delegates, offering small gestures or tokens of peer-hood where he can. A bow here, a hand gesture there.
Iota is not the centerpiece of the procession like Archibald is but he needs to stand out as a senior officer and as Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And so Archibald does not really need to insist very hard. But it's best that the others feel that Iota has to be dragged to public displays like that. It significantly reduces the amount of appearances he has to make. Which means more time for his research projects.
And so he accompanies Archibald in the AdMech equivalent of dress robes - meaning clean robes with slightly more cogwheel embroideries and a large display of the Rogue Traders crest alongside the AdMech Skull symbol.
He's accompanied by some of the more senior tech priests of the ship, each with their own junior assistants. Two heavy duty servitors just in case something does come up. And of course his trusty servo skull "Variable".
Heinrich wears his navy dress uniform, now with the wings of a Commander on the shoulder pads and all the medals his nearly three decades has earned him. Obviously only someone with serious knowledge of imperial navy decorum would have any inkling what those variously colored bands, ribbons and pieces of metal represent.
He does wear his flight helmet however and the highly polished boltgun is strapped onto his back. He salutes everyone of higher military rank he comes across and crisply nods to important civilians. The general population is getting waves and smiles. If he happens to pass by a small child, he will pluck his Thunderblossom batch and gift it to the little one (and replaces it with a spare one a few meters further down the road).
Following him in ranks of three, come the fighter pilots, three from each fighter squadron, and behind them another dozen bomber pilots all wearing full flight suites and helmets.
The places in these ranks where far from popular... until Heinrich wondered aloud how the few volunteers would get an entire proto-hive city's worth of young ladies and gents satisfied in the few hours of leave that would surely follow the march-up and during the important-peoole talky-time...
That settled that issue.
The procession leads you into the center area of the city, finally having you end up at the foot of the main building, the palace if you will.
Waiting, with all appearance of patience, is a man who loks to be in his early middle age, well dressed if somewhat more subdued compared to most of the rest of you, leaning on a walking stick and observing you over the rim of a pair of low worn gilded glasses.
Finally, as you stop, he raises the stick and the music falls silent, and most of the hubbub does down as well.
"Honoured dignitaries, welcome to our humble planet and capital city. We receive you with great joy and anticipation.
Allow me to formally greet you in my capacity as the acting Lord Mayor.
My name is Vistanis Lorenzo, and I pray to our ever watching lord that your visit shall be filled with pleasure, profit and satisfaction."
Pausing to offer each one of you a polite nod, he then continues speaking.
"We have prepared quarters for you in the palace, and tonight, we are having a banquet to your collected honor.
All the local dignitaries shall be there, and you will have a chance to sample the many delights this planet has to offer."
On que, a small army of servants emerges to guide you further.